A Quick Re-Cap of the March 17 Meeting
GOOD NEWS
Deric received his COVID-19 vaccination last Friday and has a quick trip to Las Vegas planned for this weekend.
Brian will receive his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination on Saturday.
The club welcomed back Cathy after recovering from emergency surgery. She is doing well.
NEW MEMBER INDUCTION
Returning member Tamara Brunow was officially inducted into the Rotary Club of Council Bluffs Centennial.
BOARD MEETING UPDATES
Zoom
The cub has extended our Zoom membership. Once we are able to meet in person, the club would like to continue to offer a Zoom option for all members.
Valley View Park Clean-up
A service project was scheduled. May 15th at 9:00am the club will meet at Valley View Park for a park clean-up. The city will provide trash bags and Tamara will provide gloves. Family, friends and potential members welcome!
PayPal Link
Our PayPal account is set-up with a link on the club webpage. Members can use this link to pay dues or contribute to quarterly giving and educational projects. The club would just ask that members round up their dues to include the PayPal fees.
Club History
Erin is working on compiling a club history for the webpage. If you have any knowledge on the history of our club, please share it with Erin.
GENERAL UPDATES
COVID-19 Monitoring Criteria
The club continues to monitor cases of COVID-19 in Pottawattamie County. The county is reporting a positivity rate of 6.3% as of March 15.
Vaccination Update
Many of our club members have been vaccinated, which means we may be able to resume in-person meetings soon.
Foundation Giving Update
Rick was unable to attend the meeting. Deric shared the Foundation Giving Update in his absence. Our club participation rate is at 75% (15/20) with a $226 per capita giving for a total of $4,520 contributed.
Quarterly Giving Update
Craig reported the club has raised $270 for the district grant project.
Career Fair Update
Erin shared that planning for the 5th and 6th Grade Virtual Career Fair continues to move forward. The committee is working on finalizing a presenter list and t-shirts have been ordered.
Social Media/Website/Newsletter Update
Erin continues to work on updating the club webpage and newsletter. She asked the club members take a look at the site and provide any feedback they might have.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Polio Plus Change Collection – April 2021
Virtual Career Fair – April 2021
Valley View Park Clean-up – May 15, 2021 @ 9:00am
Next Meeting – April 7, 2021 @ 7:00 via Zoom
PROGRAM | BELLE’S PLAY GARDEN
Heather Tomasek joined the meeting to share the details of an exciting project in Council Bluffs, Belle’s Play Garden.
Heather is a graduate from UNL’s landscape architecture program. Heather joined the City’s Parks Department in 2014 as the City’s first Park, Planning, and Design Coordinator. She worked on projects such as: Water Playground at Fairmount Park, Emerald Ash Borer Recovery Plan, and Phases 2 - 4 of River’s Edge Park. Today, Heather is philanthropist and an active board member of the SINC Foundation. She has partnered with other donors to create the vision for a children’s play garden for the Council Bluffs Riverfront.
Heather shared with the group history behind her love for parks and what brought her to the City’s Parks Department. She no longer works for the city, but her family is a co-founder of the Go Play Initiative and the success of her husband’s start-up company has positioned their family to give back to the community.
Highlights from the presentation:
- Original plans for a park in this location fell through.
- When the play structure is added to River’s Edge Park the city will also be making modifications to the water feature piece adjacent to the play garden.
- Monstrum, out of Denmark, was selected as the designer of the play structure. Monstrum has many themes that have been designed throughout the world.
- Heather referenced the 2010 principles used to create the Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park when beginning the planning for this play garden.
- When researching animals for the play structure, they looked at animals specific to the Missouri River – fell in love with the American White Pelican
- The park is 2,000 square feet. Cattails are 13 feet tall and pelican is 15 feet tall. Areas of the pelican are transparent and it will feature windows to allow parents to see their children
- The focus for the play structure was more on younger children.
- In addition to the play garden existing flower beds will be transformed into native gardens.
- The play structure is currently being built in Denmark. It will travel to the New York Harbor, go through customs and will then be delivered to Council Bluffs in two shipping containers.
- They hope to begin construction in late spring of 2021.